Meghan’s heroines: Joni, Julia... and Rosie the Riveter!
IT IS a fascinating mix of family, feminist trailblazers – and even her boss.
Prince Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle has named ‘the ten women who changed my life’ in a list which is headed by primatologist Dian Fossey, but also features Rosie the Riveter – a poster girl of the Second World War – and Joni Mitchell.
Julia Roberts, who Miss Markle says inspired her to become an actress, is also on the list. Miss Markle told the US magazine which published her top ten: ‘When I was younger someone told me, “You kind of look like Julia Roberts in profile”. It was the best compliment of all time.’
Dian Fossey devoted her life before she was murdered in 1985 to saving Rwanda’s gorilla population and was immortalised by Sigourney Weaver in the film Gorillas in the Mist.
Miss Markle, 36, said: ‘If it wasn’t for her, these animals could be extinct.’
The actress is currently on a safari holiday to Botswana with Prince Harry, and many believe the trip is a precursor to an engagement. It is anticipated that Miss Markle will soon quit her job on the legal drama Suits, filmed in Toronto, and move to London.
She put her boss Bonnie Hammer, chairman of NBC/Universal Cable, at No 2 on her list in Glamour magazine.
Miss Markle said her popular character in the show, paralegal Rachel Zane, wasn’t written as a ‘bi-racial freckled girl’ but Miss Hammer has always been committed to ‘colourblind casting’.
The actress has often spoken of the preju- dice she has suffered as a result of having a white father and a black mother, particularly in the industry in which she works.
Of her third heroine, Rosie the Riveter, she says she had a poster of the feminist icon – flexing her biceps as she represented wartime women workers – in her room while growing up. It inspired her, she says, to stand up for her beliefs. Next on her list is Madeleine Albright, the first female US Secretary of State, who juggled the roles of politician, author and mother ‘with finesse’.
Miss Markle said that, having studied international relations at university, she was always drawn to that world.
Music and food also feature on the list. Canadian singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell is at No 5 for her song California which has become something of an anthem for Miss Markle, who is from Los Angeles, whenever she is feeling homesick.
Then comes chef Alice Waters. Miss Markle said she has inspired her to favour eating fresh, locally grown, seasonal produce – something that is bound to delight Prince Charles.
Julia Roberts is at No 7 ahead of American novelist Toni Morrison, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Next is entrepreneur Suhani Jalota who set up a network of women in India who make and sell sanitary products.
Finally, at No 10, is Miss Markle’s mother Doria Ragland, a yoga teacher and therapist, with whom she shares a close bond.
Miss Markle says she admires her for being ‘nurturing and caregiving’ at the same time as being a dreadlocked, nose-ringed ‘free spirit’.
She told Glamour: ‘ We can just have so much fun together, and yet I’ll still find so much solace in her support.’
‘A dreadlocked free spirit’